Paid Audiences/Events

Only I would join two Paid Audience sites, attend two events and not get paid. To be fair, one was a total misunderstanding on my part. Hopefully I can help you to better navigate them.

Surkus
This is a event app with a collection of paid and free events. You sign up, enter in lots of demographic information (all the better to tailor to your preferences) and wait. And wait. When you do get an event invite, don’t ignore it! You will be ranked by your follow through. If you can’t make it, decline, never no-show. It’ll impact on your getting events in the future.

From what I’ve seen so far and from what a friend has told me, the events run around $5 and the payment is automatic upon completion. My friend went to a book signing, received a free book, ate some finger food for her $5. Though my first event was a “$60 Value”… value is very different from payment. Still a fabulous deal. The Octfest at Brooklyn Hanger is a very large, well attended annual event in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. There were two floors of breweries giving out samples by the glass and live bands. I don’t really like beer, so I hit the two cider booths repeatedly. It was enough beer that some people were pretty sloppy by the halfway point. The food trucks were out of pocket though, but somehow I kept getting the free pizza the event organizers bought as an apology for the extremely long lines, plopped down next to me. Twice. Sweet! To think most of the attendees paid full price to be there. Suckers.

Now for the downside… I wish I could have brought a guest. I saw some people I knew from Yelp but they left after a few hours. So, I got incredibly bored by 7pm and thought that I couldn’t leave until closing at 9pm lest I not get paid. The last hour was interminable. I wonder if it would have impacted my reliability score if I had left. The app uses GPS to track your attendance, so there’s no cutting out early of paid events. The sheer amount of demographic infomation required may also be offputting to many. But honestly, if you’re on Facebook, there is no such thing as you having privacy anyway.

Onset Productions
This is a website that frankly I thought I was going to have to completely pan. I have applied for at least 30 events over the past few months and got nada. These are mainly tappings for television talk shows. The AOL Build shows I was willing to go to for free, with Onset Productions I could get for $10 an hour on average. That is if they ever select me! The best paying show is The People’s Court @ 70 bucks. It’s an all day thing with free transportation to and from Connecticut and a free lunch. Again, something I was willing to already do for free.

My first tapping was for PBS’s only late night talk show, “Third Rail with Ozy”. Unpaid but still fun and interesting. The topic of the day was “Should the US continue to be World Cop?”. There are actually audience regulars and online audience participation. My Instagram photo was liked by the production staff in seconds of posting. Very interactive. I don’t have a tv so I’m going to have no idea if I got into the shot. Not that I really want to see myself on television anyway.

The demographic info is minimal. Photo and a blurb about yourself. From what I’m reading on the site, you get paid in cash or by check at the conclusion of a paid tapping. Any earnings over $600 and you have to claim it on your taxes. At this rate I will never have to.